Amazing What You Find...

... when you tidy your studio!

This book called 'Needlework Economies'

is an absolute gem:

Very old...

Re-sold at Foyles in London...

and in it's day, perhaps very useful,

if say you needed new underwear:

Or you were going to mend a hole in your stockings (What!!)

Mending your man's shirt would have come in handy then!?!:

And you and your friend

could get a measure of each other:

A photo shows 'a girl wearing the frock she made'.

She must have been very proud....

The back has an advert for Fry's Cocoa

and a slogan 'The Pursuit of Health'.

Cocoa? Health?

 Can't be high up on the healthy lifestyle scale. Can it? ;o)

How Many 9 Patches Does It Take...

... to realise you are making them the wrong size for the project you have in mind?

30!

I had a bit of a sewing session this morning as I was up early and needed to sew. I took a wodge of my Leader & Ender 4 patches and made them into 9 patches. Later I cut setting HST's and then, and only then, did I realise they were the wrong size! Oh well, never mind... they'll be used for something else I'm sure...

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I never confessed that while in Germany visiting Birgit and meeting Bonnie Hunter, I bought ALL 3 of Bonnie's books (and Tonya's too!)

I needed inspiration for a very mini cot quilt I have been asked to make for someone's granddaughter's doll...

So 'Sister's Nine Patch' it was from Bonnie's Adventures with Leaders & Enders...

Now to quilt it!

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The garden continues to grow and we are enjoying all it has to offer,

including courgettes/zuchinnis which are absolutely delicious in a cake

filled with home made lemon curd and topped with cream cheese and lemon icing!

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The weekend saw us head off for a picnic. DH takes fishing for tiddlers quite seriously :-)

They must find it so curious to be fished out, admired and then thrown back after a bit...

Stitches (and Vegetables) in Ditches...

I guess from now on, no blog post will exist without my (lazy) quilty cat! :-D

Yesterday I discovered that my friend and his wife had had their baby on Sunday so the baby quilt top that has been sitting around waiting to be basted, quilted and bound needed doing a.s.a.p. With a spurt of energy, I ironed the backing, which I had with some foresight pre-washed last week, and pin basted the quilt. I only S.I.T.D.-ed, but hey, I prefer making tops to finishing them :-)

Then I sewed the binding on. I used this lovely purpley-pink batik I have had in my stash for a while. It's definitely time to use those fabrics I love or someone else will be when I am gone!!

I hope to get it done tonight and then I can move on to another deadline quilt. This one is the novelty or pink string one with a self-imposed deadline by me... I think I need deadlines LOL

On the weekend I finally cut into the charm pack that I won in the raffle when I visited Germany and the Black Forest Quilters. I had donated 2 prizes so was allowed as an exception and a non-member (although I would LOVE to be a member and fly over EVERY month for meetings!!) to buy a ticket.

I saw the pattern in 'Triangle Free Quilts' by Judy Hopkins (Great book!) and have sewed all the charms into these blocks so far.

Obviously (if you know me) I did not do it the same size and obviously (me again!) I am going to change it and add sashings in white similar to Kate's first Baby quilt in this post.

DH has been very industrious in the veg patch this year. I have been designated chief seed sower LOL.

This basically means that my job is to get seeds to seedlings, he then plants the seedlings or mini plants and then takes all the glory. Considering it's back breaking work digging bean trenches, I'll give him his well-deserved praise, although we're going 50/50 with the vegetables (especially the peas) LOL

Hospitals, Hexagons, Hearts...

Today I had a post-op consultation at the hospital. I waited for well over an hour for my five minutes with the doctor :-)

Just before I was called in, they tried to send me to see someone else. Someone who would know nothing about my operation or why I was there...
I sat in the waiting room sewing hexagons so to be honest didn't notice how long the wait was...

Following doctor's orders, I came home and took my own dressings off and snipped my own dissolving stitch thread ends. Then I felt sick. I am faint-hearted LOL

Speaking of hearts, I am working on another handwork project as well as my hexagons.



All this tidying up around the house has unearthed these die-cut hearts that my friend Donna sent me quite a few years ago. Donna included template plastic, freezer paper, glue, a demo heart and 85 (or so) fabric pre-cut hearts...


I decided to do them in bed and slightly differently to Donna's suggestion. So am doing the applique method where you draw an outline (using the template) on the right side of the fabric and then as you stitch you push the edges under with your needle. Needle-turn applique without the freezer paper. I would have done needle-turn applique with the freezer paper, but getting to an iron while resting was too much like hard work.


I have now done 8 and half and have 78 (or so) to go :-)





The other applique hearts that I did in an English paper-piecing sort of way while I was in hospital after my operation have found a new home. They'll be going to Clare for Quilts for Leukaemia:



Here's a little secret (don't tell DH)..., but while I've been lying in my bed I treated myself to 2 new books (sshh!).
This is one of them...



And this is my first attempt at an embroidery from the book.


I don't 'do' embroidery or 'stitchery', but I do love roses and I had an idea that I may embroider some of my hexagon pieces that are not rosy enough with a rose embroidery... just an idea...

All about patchwork

When I was having an enforced(!) clearout I found this book. I'm not sure where I picked it up, but I love these old books. Published in 1973, this softback book is a little gem (if you like English paper-piecing that is!)


(Is that me, the dutiful wife, sitting demurely stitching away at her hexagons? No! Of course it isn't LOL)

It has a large section on Hexagons...



Some ideas for leftover hexagons like decoration on clothing (gag) and cute kids waistcoats...



Gift ideas for the man who has everything ;-)...



and trousers for the boys...



The caption is great, it says "...Make extra patches to lengthen trousers as the child grows." I can just imagine the horror on their little faces were I to make them such items LOL

Of course, the book adds yet another project to my huge handwork 'to do list"!!:



I just love this design, but I think I'd better try and finish my hexagons first!

The Mac is back!

At last a new charger! To replace this damaged one:


I hated not having my computer, but I did gets lots of other things done *LOL*

This means I can finally thank Kate for an African block for our swap


Kate also included some goodies... the dog paw print is for the boy's dog quilts (WIP's!) and the roses is because I just lurve roses! And the Black & White leaf print is because Kate knew I had my beady eye on it! Thanks Kate!

(While I was typing this I looked down and look at this!!

The fabric on the left is from Kate and the fabric on the right is my skirt *LOL*)

Also in the post this week, a magazine and some great bits (fabric, a pattern, a wonderful card...) from Wendy. Thank you for swapping with me Wendy!



Wendy and I swapped the magazine I wanted for a kitty pincushion. I had been reading blogs and everyone was making the tea-towel bag in this magazine so I had to try it...


I didn't have any nice new (large) tea towels needed so I just tried it with fabric and it's quite fun...

Also in the magazine, a new one for my 'To do list' (someday before I die *sigh*!!!)


I just love these colours and it's a favourite design too!

On the bag front, we had a leaving 'do' slash teddy-bear's picnic for Sue who has now retired...
Kids...


Cake...


Gifts...


I think it went well...




I bought myself a book. I love books. This one has great pictures and before you belly-larf (!) even if I never put it into practice it's quite an interesting read...


The weather has been abomnible (sp) and our poor garden is quite flooded


So I won't be rushing out to 'grow my own veg' just yet, but at least I'll have a little think about it LOL

It's a wrap!

My DSIL brought me some lovely fabrics back from her trip to Canada. As a (belated) thank you I made her this table runner from Lise Bergene's book : A Passion for Patchwork...

I backed it with Christmassy fabric so that it's double-sided. My DSIL is not a 'patchwork person' so I tried to keep the whole thing very subdued!

It's a great book and there are lots of projects that I would like to try. In the meantime I hope she likes it!


On another note: There's a new game in our house....

Wrap the 3 year old in a quilt, he'll unroll himself and then shout "again, again" all night!

And that's a wrap LOL